The Atlantic
Will Democrats Abandon a Criminal-Justice Reformer?
Larry Krasner’s bid for reelection as Philadelphia’s district attorney will test whether a progressive prosecutor can survive a spike in gun violence.
Christopher Lee / VII / Redux
PHILADELPHIA On a recent Saturday morning, Larry Krasner was explaining to me why gun violence and murders have spiked in Philadelphia over the past year and why the criminal-justice reforms he instituted as the city’s district attorney are not to blame. The fault, he said, lies with the pandemic and its shutdown of schools, summer camps, job opportunities, and even municipal courts. “It was the elimination of the basic fabric in our society,” Krasner told me, “that has been protective of young people and older juveniles exactly the groups that are shooting each other.”